Statement released in Nixzmary Brown trial

NEW YORK Nixzmary's lifeless body, just 36 pounds, was discovered in a cluttered room where her stepfather admits he tied her to a chair with rope, and sometimes with duck tape. It was a room where she was forced to use a litter box as a toilet as punishment for misbehaving.

Now Caesar Rodriguez is on trial for murder. In a three page statement to police, Rodriguez writes "She became a little devil." He disciplined Nixzmary, he claims, with an iron hand and blames her for abusing the other children.

"Things escalated to her drowning in the bath tub," he writes.

Defense attorney's will paint a different picture, placing much of the blame of Nixalese Santiago, Nixzmary's mother, who is also charged with murder.